Should you turn off Google search partners?

Google calls them sites in the Search Network that partner with Google to show ads. Your ads can appear on their search results, site directory pages and product detail pages, and on YouTube search results and Watch pages. Google says they extend the reach of search ads to hundreds of non-Google websites, and you pay only when someone clicks, as on Google Search.

Two things make them worth a look in every account. They’re on by default: Google includes search partners when you create a campaign for the Search Network. And Google’s own help page cautions that clicks from these sites may not always reflect highly targeted traffic, and asks you to consider whether including them suits your campaign’s goals.

Google has also been changing the network. Since August 2025 it reports the partner sites your Search and Shopping ads ran on, with impressions for each, and on February 10, 2026 it stopped showing ads on parked domains through search partners. It says advertisers who put at least 5% of their spend on search partners under Smart Bidding can expect more conversions overall. Your own account is where to check that for each campaign.

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Campaigns.
2. 02Select the segment icon above the table, then Network (with search partners). Each campaign splits into a row for Google search and a row for Search partners, and a row for the Display Network where Display expansion is on.
3. 03Set the date range to the last 30 days, or longer for a campaign with few conversions.
4. 04Add Conversions and Cost / conv. to the columns, or Conv. value / cost if your account runs on conversion value.

Then compare the two rows of each campaign. The question isn’t whether partners convert as well as Google Search on average across accounts; it’s whether they do in this campaign, with its keywords, its bids and its budget.

To see where the partner clicks came from, Google’s placement report lists the partner sites your Search and Shopping ads ran on, with impressions for each: Campaigns › Report editor, then When and where ads showed, then Content Suitability.

Where partners convert near Google Search’s rate, keep them. They’re reach you’d otherwise not have, bought at about the price you already pay.

Where they convert far below it, turn them off for that campaign. Be sure the gap is real first: a few conversions either way is often chance, so wait until partners have spent what several conversions cost at the Google Search rate before deciding. Under Smart Bidding, Google sets bids for partner traffic by how likely it is to convert, so a gap that lasts a month despite that is a gap in this campaign’s traffic, not a bidding delay.

1. 01Go to Campaigns › Campaigns.
2. 02Hover over the campaign and select the gear icon.
3. 03Open Networks and untick Include Google search partners. For Display expansion, the setting beside it is Include Google Display Network.
4. 04Select Save.

The setting is per campaign, so a campaign where partners pay keeps them. Performance Max has no such setting: its Search channel includes search partners, and Google’s pages describe no way to leave them out.

Every day Goldbeater reads each Search campaign that has search partners or Display expansion on, and compares what that network bought over the last 30 days with what its spend would have bought at the campaign’s own Google Search rate. It raises the network where it bought under half, on at least $20, and so few is unlikely to be chance once every campaign tested in the account is allowed for. Where your conversion value is real, the network’s return must be under half too.

It marks the finding high where the network took a tenth of the campaign’s spend, and low where it still converts better than your other campaigns typically do. It drafts the setting’s change for the change set, and nothing reaches your account until a person approves it and presses Apply; an applied change can be undone.

The same check reads Display expansion, and search impression share is where to look if Google Search itself is short of the searches you want.

Are Google search partners worth it?

In some campaigns and not others. Segment your campaigns by Network (with search partners) and compare cost per conversion or return with Google Search, campaign by campaign.

Why are search partners on in my campaign?

Google includes them by default when you create a campaign for the Search Network. You can turn them off in the campaign’s network settings at any time.

Can I see which partner sites my ads showed on?

Yes, for Search, Shopping and app campaigns since August 2025: the Content Suitability report lists the sites with impressions for each. Google shows a site that had at least 5 impressions, or any click or conversion, in the dates you choose.

Does Performance Max show ads on search partners?

Yes. Its Search channel includes search partners, and it has no network setting to turn them off.

What’s the difference between search partners and Display expansion?

Search partners show your search ads on partner sites’ search and product pages. Display expansion shows your Search campaign’s ads on the Google Display Network, using budget Search left unspent. Each is its own setting under Networks.